Floral deliveries

I am a Maltese emigrant living in Toronto. As my family is in Malta, I wanted to surprise my parents, my brother and his family with a Christmas flower arrangement and made the necessary arrangements at a local flower shop and ordered two poinsettias to be delivered on Christmas Eve.

My brother did receive my order. However, my parents, who live in a home for the elderly, did not receive the order. My florist told me the order had been sent via Interflora.

Two weeks later, it was my parents' golden wedding anniversary and I wanted to place another order. This time, I ordered a corsage of yellow roses with greens, a boutonnière yellow rose, and a planter of mixed green. Again, my parents never received this order. The local florist assured me that the order has been placed via the UK; due to the Christmas season, UK florists were closed until January 4.

When the local florist tried to contact one of the Interflora agents in Malta, it was hard to reach any of them, and when they did, they could not understand the "order". I placed my order on January 3 for delivery on January 7.

While I do understand that one of the poinsettias may not have been delivered due to the Christmas rush, it is very awkward and unprofessional that in Malta they could not understand "corsage" and "boutonnière".

I'm very proud to be Maltese, but I know that there's much room for improvement in terms of customer service.